1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to jewelry. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of creating a positive image of a fingerprint on a piece of jewelry.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Fingerprint jewelry has high sentimental value, because the imprint of a loved one's finger tip on a piece of valued jewelry carries special meaning for the person wearing the jewelry. Currently, many pieces of fingerprint jewelry are produced by taking an ink imprint and then transferring the imprint onto metal, to acid etch or hand engrave the “friction ridges” as lines. CAD software may also be used to convert the ink imprint to a digital format, which is then used in conjunction with a computer-controlled laser-etching process, to etch lines on the metal. Any means that is based on an ink imprint, however, gives an inaccurate, two-dimensional impression of the fingerprint, rather than an actual three-dimensional representation of the fingerprint ridges.
Another known method is to warm a strip of jeweler's wax with water or a heat gun and to press the finger directly into the wax. It is hard, with this method, to obtain consistent high quality results for the final product for many different reasons, but primarily due to customer error. This method gives a negative image of the fingerprint, rather than an actual representation of the print. This soft wax cannot be varied in thickness, nor can it withstand much forming.
It is desirable to have a positive image or imprint of a fingerprint, because that corresponds to what we see, when we look at a fingerprint. In the past, it has been very difficult to obtain a good positive-impression wax model for use in applying fingerprint texturing to metal jewelry by the lost wax casting method. Typically, a modeling compound, such as PLAY-DOH, is used to obtain a negative-impression mold. This compound can then be used to make the positive-impression model, but the problem is, it is has to be used with jeweler's mold injection wax. This wax is very delicate and brittle and doesn't lend itself to forming around a mandrel to make a ring. Because the wax is brittle, the fingerprint texturing is frequently distorted or obliterated when working the wax to obtain the positive-impression model. Stiffer or harder wax is available, but cannot be used with the conventional modeling compound, because the negative-impression mold is not hard enough to transfer the fingerprint texturing to the stiffer wax.
What is needed, therefore, is a method of obtaining a positive representation of a fingerprint image on a piece of metal jewelry. What is further needed is such a method that is inexpensive and that reliably produces a fingerprint image of high quality.